My family just got robbed of our rent. We have two girls and a baby on the way, so this is extremely tough. For the first time since my oldest child was born, thoughts of homelessness cross my mind.

We were trying to move from one place to another. The new rental we found is the same size as where we lived before, just cheaper and a further commute. Finally we could save a little, and our kids would still have their own room and space.

We were struggling to get in with individual agents, each charging us around $100 for applications or credit checks. We felt like we were getting ripped off from each agent, so after a few hundred dollars, we chose an agency. An agency, we thought, would be a safer approach.

We found an agency and they quickly helped us find a place. We gave our landlord our notice and put down a deposit on the new rental. A week passed, we packed our bags, reserved a truck and arranged for help to move.

On the first of the month, the agency, acting as a middleman for the landlord, told us that he needed a reference from my current landlord, who had not responded to them. We contacted our current landlord and he explained to us that he doesn’t give referrals or reviews. I asked that he inform the new landlord of his policy on references.

They responded back that the response was inadequate and that we were denied. We immediately wrote back saying that we could get a review. We called our landlord and he made the exception and wrote the review. Two days later, we were denied again. They asked where to send the check. We asked why. No explanation or response was given.

Today, we received the reimbursement of our deposit. They withheld $1,540 from the total deposit — $960 for putting the house back on the market, $580 for rent for the days the house could have been on the market.

We thought we could only lose money if something was fraudulent or they couldn’t verify our work or how long we lived there. That is what our contract said. That’s why I know I’ll win it back in court. But in the meanwhile, this robbery has only increased our struggle to get into a place. Not only are we now short $1,500, we have also given our landlord notice and are expected to move.

Comments

So, they decided not to rent to you, but are keeping part of the deposit? That’s crazy! You guys did everything you’re supposed to and they made the decision not to rent to you. Wow. I’m sure you’ll get the money back in court, but I know being out the money now makes it difficult to get into something else. So sorry this is happening to you. I hope somebody has some ideas to help you in the immediate future!

You can hope that merely by telling your story a serious and honorable owner will offer you a place at market rates. Or try the state of California for any agency that might investigate this practice that dislocated you.

Eventually you will get your money back, but what will you do in the meantime. Most places ask for a first and last month rent plus a security deposit. This will be a hardship for you I am sure. Best of luck in an early recovery. (Wonder if you sent them this article if it might get them to refund the money owed to you.?)

Hi, your friendly evil landlord checking in here! Not this guy’s, of course…but I do have thoughts on this.

First, I have yet to encounter a rental agency in San Diego that isn’t some sort of scam. While some real estate sales agents list their properties on the MLS, most rentals aren’t listed and the ones that are only pay a commission of a couple hundred dollars – not enough for someone to spend potentially days or weeks working with a client that might not result in them getting paid at all. Property management companies generally only advertise and show their own units, or units that they have under management for an owner – that does make it hard, because you’ve got to look in dozens of places to find a needle in a haystack.

Second, if you pay for a credit report (which is part of an application fee), you have a right to a copy of that report. Good landlords will just give you a copy, lousy ones are at least obligated to provide you with contact info for the credit bureau so you can request a copy direct. My advice – if you get turned down on your first application, get a copy of the report, then show it to other rental agents before you pay a second application fee – if they look at it and immediately disqualify you, at least you haven’t paid twice for the same service. If they say they’d likely approve you, though, be prepared to pay again so they can verify your information from a source they trust. I’ve heard of landlords making money from bogus application fees, but legally we can’t charge more than the actual cost of the application (the credit check fee plus the wages of the person processing the application and checking your references) – I charge $35 per adult, which is about $20 for a credit/background check and $15 for the time I’ll spend processing the report, reading it, and calling your references.

Third, the time for me to check your references is before I agree to rent to you, sign a lease, or collect any cash beyond the application fee. If you’ve already signed a lease and placed a deposit (usually equal to one month’s rent, sometimes more if you have pets but never more than two months’ rent for a unfurnished unit, three months for a furnished one), the place should be yours.

If you signed a lease with the property owner or manager, they’re likely in the wrong here. If you gave money to some third party agent rather than dealing with your actual landlord, it’s likely you’ve been victimized by a scam artist, not a landlord – any funds I collect as a deposit have to be immediately placed into trust account with strict accounting rules.

Finally, there are reasons I can take some of your deposit for a failed lease, but it doesn’t sound like those conditions are met here. If you sign a one-year lease, for example, and then decide to move after six months, you still owe the rent for the year. I can’t, however, just leave your place sitting vacant and expect you to pay for it – the law obligates me to, in a timely manner, make any repairs needed, put the property on the market, and move a new tenant in as soon as possible. Until someone else starts paying the rent that you promised to pay, though, you’re still on the hook for rent plus any repairs I had to make beyond normal wear and tear on the unit.

That doesn’t sound like what happened here, though. Best of luck to the author in recovering his money from whoever took it, if you’ve got any questions I can help with I’ll be sure to check back here…

Thank you for the time you took to write that. I will most likely ask for advice in the near future.
One thing I was curious about that you may be able to answer is: is a deposit to hold the house common before signing the lease? That is what they said the money was for, if we did not get the money in, they would be able to continue looking at other applications.

If a property is in particularly high demand and I have someone who appears to be qualified that’s willing to place a deposit, I may choose to take it to place them at the front of the line. But I’ll also immediately begin performing my background check, and if they don’t qualify I’ll refund anything I’ve collected, minus the application fee. If I choose not to rent to you, that deposit isn’t mine – even if I do, it still isn’t, I have to keep it in the trust fund mentioned above and can only use it for problems you cause while you’re a tenant.

My preference, though I’m told it’s not common, is to take several applications if several people want to apply. I’ll then choose the most qualified person, run the background check, and if they pass, refund even the application fees to the people whose applications I didn’t process. No sense in me doing the work, wasting your money, and dinging your credit report if you’re not getting the place.

I’m still curious – was the party you gave the deposit to the actual manager of the property you were trying to rent, or some third-party “agent?”

I have ran in to a few people who have refunded everything because they did it the same way as you mentioned you had. I hope we end up with someone like that, at least it’s fair. Our problem is that we are never the best applicant.
I believe the Agency was the agent for the home and we gave the money to them, not a third party.
Thanks again for the help to understand all of this.

I’m not a lawyer, but if that was indeed the property manager I’d say your chance of eventually recovering that money is a lot better.

If you’re still shopping for a place, try to get a copy of your credit report that you can show to prospective landlords before paying them any more application fees – if you know you’ve got some challenges there you might as well be up front about them in the interest of saving time and money.

Depending on what you’re looking for, credit isn’t always a deterrent, unless you’ve been evicted from two of the last three places you’ve stayed. I manage a building in a highly desirable part of North Park – lots of people tend to fight for those units, so I usually have well-qualified candidates. But I also have a handful of properties in East County where the rents tend to be lower and I’m more likely to take a chance on a borderline applicant if there are compensating circumstances (like a solid job history, good prior landlord reference, and/or someone with good credit willing to guarantee rent).

The rent deposits are really out of control. There is a lot of slum lords that keep peoples deposits for no legitimate reason. If you live there for 2 years they are not allowed to charge you painting or carpet cleaning. it is time to for government to crack down on these greedy landlords…..

Very true. My suggestion to anyone moving out is to demand a premove out inspection. It falls under Civil Code 1950.5. Remember that, because some judges don’t even know that the landlord has an obligation to offer this inspection for purpose of allowing you to fix things before they deduct from your deposit. Just ask a few weeks before move out so they can’t delay.. then, be ready for court.

Beat me to the punch – yes, you have the right to a move-out inspection, but it’s on the tenant to request it. I’ll normally offer to do it, but I wouldn’t assume everyone does, and 90% of my tenants turn me down anyway.

There are, indeed, many landlords who seem to have a goal of capturing as much of a tenant’s deposit as possible. That’s unfortunate, but the rest of this comment could be construed as misleading.

First, you should clean your carpet at least once a year. Really, every six months, but I know no one does that (I’m a renter myself, and I don’t). Carpet is nasty stuff. That said, you’re expected to return the unit in the same condition as it was given to you – if the carpet was clean, it should be returned clean.

An exception applies for normal wear and tear. For paint, the poster above is correct – while paint can and almost certainly will last longer, in California its expected lifespan is two years. If you leave a unit with paint that’s less than two years old and is so badly damaged it needs to be redone, I’ll charge you a portion (but not all) of the cost. Same with carpet – the carpet I use has a lifespan of seven years. If I install brand new carpet for you and you leave after 2 years with the carpet trashed, I’ll charge you 5/7 the cost of replacing it. If the carpet was already 5 years old when you moved in and you leave after 2 years with it trashed, it’s at the end of its life expectancy and the full replacement cost is on me.

Cleaning is a big thing that tends to get people – if you leave the stove or refrigerator dirty, I’m going to charge you to clean them. If you leave the kitchen walls caked in grease, even if I’m not charging for paint I’m going to charge you for the extra prep work I had to do before I could paint. Likewise if you’ve punched a bunch of holes in the wall that need patched (a couple dozen nail holes is usually no big deal, a couple hundred is – I’ve seen both).

If you’re moving out and have questions about this stuff, ask your landlord. Upon request, we’ve got to meet with you before you move out to provide a list of repairs you need to make in order to get your deposit back. This is the time where, if I know I’m going to replace the carpet, I’ll tell you not to waste your money cleaning it, but I may remind you to clean your ceiling fan and that part of the stove under the burners no one ever seems to remember.

One of the jobs I had many years ago was to go into apartments with new renters and take pictures of each and every room, cupboard, toilet, etc. When those renters left, they called me to take “after” pictures so that there could be no discussion about “what was” and “what is”. Many a tenant received monies back because they actually left the apartment in better condition than it was when it was rented. With cell phone camera’s today it might be the way to go. Just make sure that the pictures are dated!

If anyone is interested in helping Josh and his family, a friend of mine set up a Go Fund Me page. As a result of the rental agency rip-off, he doesn’t have the money to pay the rent in the place he was moving out of and no place to move into. So, we’re trying to help him with this month’s rent. Any help at all is appreciated and sharing with anyone else is appreciated as well!https://www.gofundme.com/eisman-family-home-fund